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AMNESTY. 



SPE5iCH OF 



Hon- James A. Garfield, of Ohio, 

In Reply to 

HON. B. H. HILL, 



I 



N THE 



w 



OF GEORGIA, 

ousE OF -Representatives, 
Wednesday, January 12, 1876. 



Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, no gentle- 
man on this floor can regret more sincerely 
than I do the course that the debate has 
taken, e?pecially that portion which oc- 
curred yesterday. To one who reads the 
report of that discussion it would be difficult 
to discover 

THE REAL QUESTION AT ISS0E 

and to learn from the Record itself the scope 
and character of the pending measure. I re- 
gret that neither tliespeech of the gentleman 
from New York [Mr. Cox] nor that of the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Hill] has yet 
appeared in the Record. I should prefer to 
quote from the full report, but, replying 
now, I must quote them as their speeches 
appeired in the public journals of yesterday 
and to-day. But they are here, and can 
correct any inaccuracy of quotation. Any 
one wlio reads their speeches would not sus- 
pect that they were debating a simple propo- 
sition to relieve some citizens of political 
and legal disabilities incurred during the 
late war. For example, had I been a casual 
reader and not a listener, I should say that 
the chief proposition yesterday was an ar- 
raignment of the administration of this Gov- 
ernment during the last fifteen years. If I 
had been called upon to pick out those dec- 
larations in the speech of the gentleman 
from Georgia [Mr. Hill] which embody the 
topic of debate, I should have said they were 
these : 

The history of the last fifteen vears Is yet 
fresh in tlie minds of the world. It is useless 
to speak of the grace and magnanimity of the 
Kepublican party. With the master eiislaved, 
with intelligence disfranchised, with society 
disordered, with States subverted, with Legis- 



latures dispersed, peopa; eannot afford to talk 
of grace and magnanimity. If tliat is grace 
and magnanimitv, I pray God to spare the 
country in the future froili such virtues. 

I should say that the propositions and 
arguments arrayed around that paragraph 
were the center and circumference of his 
theme. Let me then in a few words try to 
recall the House to the actual topic of this 
debate. 

A gentleman on the other side of the 
House, a few days ago, introduced a propo- 
sition in the form of a bill to grant amnesty 
to the remaining persons who are not yet 
relieved of their political disabilities Under 
the Constitution. That is a plain proposition 
for practical legislation. It is a very im- 
portant proposition. It is a proposition to 
finish and complete forever the work of exe- 
cuting one of the great clauses of the Con- 
stitution of our country. When that bill 
shall have become a law, a large portion of 
the fourteenth amendment will have ceased 
to be an operative clause of the Constitution. 

Whenever so great and important a matter 
is proposed a deliberative body should bring 
to its consideration the fullest and most 
serious examination. But what was pro- 
posed in this case ? Not to deliberate, not 
to amend, not even to refer to a committee 
for the ordinary consideration given even to 
a proposition to repeal the tax on matches. 
No reference to anybody ; but a member of 
the House, of his own motion and at his own 
discretion, proposes to launch that proposi- 
tion into the House, refusing the privilege 
of amendment and the right to debate, ex- 
cept as it miglit come from his courtesy, and 
pass it, declaring, as he does so, the time 



7-. 



SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



as to fall in tlieir hands to a system of treat- 
ment which has resulted in reducing many 
of those who have survived and been 
permitted to return to us to a con- 
dition, both physically and mentally, 
which no langruage we can use can 
adequately describe. Though nearly all the 
patients now in the Naval Academy Hospital 
at Annapolis and in the West Hospital in Bal- 
timore liivve been under the kindest and most 
Intelligent treatment for about three weeks 
past, and manv of them for a greater length 
of time, still 'they present literally the ap- 
pearance of living skeletons, many of them 
being nothing but skin and bone; some of 
them are maimed for life, having neen fro- 
zen while exposed to the inclemency of the 
winter season on Belle Isle, being compelled 
to lie on the bare ground without tents or 
blankets, some of them without overcoats or 
even coats, with but little tire to mitigate the 
severity of the winds and storms to which 
they were exposed. # * » ♦ 

It will be observed from the testimony that 
all the witnessi'S who testify upon fliat point 
state that the treatment tliev received while 
confined at Columbia. South Carolina, Dalton, 
Georgia, and other places, was far more hu- 
mane than that thev received at Richmond, 
where the authorities of the so-called Confed- 
eracy were congregated, and where the power 
existed, had the inclination not been want- 
ins, to reform those abuses and secure to the 
prisoners they held some treatment that 
would bear a public comparison to that ac- 
corded bv our authorities to the prisoners in 
our custodv. Yonr committee, therefore, are 
constrained to sav that thev can hardly avoid 
the conclusion expressed by so many of our 
j.f>]f,ased soldiers, that the inhuman practices 
herein referred to are the result of a determi- 
nation on the uart of the rebel authorities to 
redncRonr soldiers in their power by priva- 
tion of food and clothing and by exposure to 
such a condition that those who mav survive 
shall never recover so as to be able to render 
anv effective service in the field. 

I ani not now discussing the merits of the 
cliarge at all. hut am showing that such is, 
and for twelve years has continued to be, 
the authoritative official cliarge of the exec- 
utive department of the Government and of 
a ioint committee of the two Honses. So 
mncli for the responsible character of the 
charge. To this I should add that this 
chnrge is believed to he true by a great raa- 
jnritv of the people whom we represent on 
this floor. 

I now inquire is this charge true? 

The gentleman from Georgia denies gen- 
erally the charge that atrocities were prac- 
ticed upon our prisoners at Andersonville. 
He makes a general denial, and asserts that 
Mr. Davis did observe 

THE ItUMAXK RULES OF MODERN WARFARE. 

As a proof, he quotes the general order 
issued hy the President of the Confederate 
Government under which the prison was 
to he established, an order providing that 
it should he located on healthy groiind, 
where there was an abundance of good 
water, and trees for healthful and grate- 
ful shade. Tliat is a perfect answer so far 
as it goes. But I ask how that order was 
executed? To whose hands was committed 
the work of building the Andersonville 



prison? To the hands of General Winder, 
an intimate and favorite friend of Mr. Davis. 
And who was General Winder? He was a 
man of whom the Richmond Examiner used 
these words the day he took his departure 
from Richmond to assume command of the 
proposed prison: 

Thank God that Richmond is at last rid of 
old Winder. God have mercy upon those to 
whom he has been sent! 

He was, as the testimony in the Wirz trial 
shows, the special and intimate friend of 
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confed- 
eracy, by whom he was detailed on this busi- 
ness, and detailed with such a send-off as I 
have read you from a paper of his own city 
warmly in the interest of the rebel cause. 

What next? How did General Winder 
execute the order after he went there? I 
turn to the Wirz trial, and read from it only 
such authorities as the gentleman from 
Georgia recognizes — ■ 

OFFICERS OF THE REBEL ARMY. 

The gentleman stated yesterday that there 
was nothing in this book connecting the 
head of the Confederate Government with 
the Andersonville atrocities. Before I am 
through we will see. On the 5th day of 
January, 1864, a report was made by D. T. 
Chandler, a lieutenant colonel of the Con- 
federate army. This report was offered in 
evidence in the Wirz trial, and Colonel 
Chandler was himself a witness at that 
trial, and swears that the report is genuine. 
I quote from page 224: 

Andeksox, January 5, 1864. 

Colouel; Having, in obedience to instruc- 
tions of the 25th 'ultimo, carefully inspected 
the prison for Fedci-al prisoners of war and 
post at this place, I respectfully submit the 
following report: 

The Federal prisoners of war are confined 
within a stockade fifteen feet high, of roughly 
hewn pine logs about eight inches in diameter, 
inserted five feet into the ground, inclosing, in- 
cluding the recent extension, an area of live 
hundred and forty by two hundred and sixty 
yards. A niiling round the inside of the 
stockade, and about twenty feet from it, consti- 
tutes the "dead line," beyond which the pris- 
oners arc not allowed to pass, and about three 
and one-fourth acres near the center of the 
inclosure are so marshy as to be at present 
unfit for occupation, reducing the available 
present area to about tweiity-three and one- 
half acres, which gives somewhat less thansix 
square feet to each prisoner. Even this is 
being constantly reduced by the additions to 
their number. A small stream passing trom 
west to east through the inclosure, at about 
one hundred and fifty yards from its southern 
limit, furnishes the only water for washing 
accessible to the prisoners. Some regimen of 
the guard, the bakery, and the cook house, 
being placed on the rising grounds bordering 
the stream before it enters the prison, render 
the water nearly unfit for use before it reaches 
the prisoners. ' * * * 

D. T. CHANDLER, 

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General. 
Colonel R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and 

Inspector General. 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



Here is an official exliibit of the manner 
in whicii the officer detailed by Jeff. Davis 
choie tlieplace for health, with •'ruuuing wa- 
ter, and agreeable shade." He chose a piece 
of forest-ground that had a miasmatic marsh 
in tlie heart of it and a small stream run- 
ning through it; but the troops stationed 
outside of the stockade were allowed to de- 
file its pure water before it could reach the 
stockade; and then, as if in the very refine- 
ment of cruelty, as if to m.ake a mockery of 
the order quoted by the gentleman from 
Georgia, he detailed men 

TO CUT DOWN EVERY TREE AND SHRUB 

in the inclosure, leaving not a green leaf 
to show where the forest had been. And 
subsequently, when the burning sun of 
July was pouring down its tiery heat upon 
the heads of tliese men, with but six 
square feet of ground to a man, a piteous 
petition was made by the prisoners to Win- 
der to allow these poor men to be detailed to 
go outside, under guard, and cut pine from 
the forest to make arbors under wliich they 
could shelter themselves, and they were 
answered witli all tlie loathsome brutality of 
malignant hate, that they should have no 
bush to shelter them; and thus, under the 
fierce rays of the southern sun, they miser- 
ably perished. 

These last statements are made on the 
authority of Ambrose Spencer, a planter of 
Georgia, who resided within five miles of 
Andersonville. I quote from his testimony, 
(Wirz's trial, p. 359:) 

Between the 1st ami 15th of December, 1863, 
I went up to AlulorsouviUe with W. S. ^ inder 
and four or five other yentlemeii, out of curi- 
osity, to see how the prison was to be laid out. 
* * * I aslcecl iiiin if he was going- to 
erect barracks or shelter of any kiutl. He re- 
plied that lie was not; that the ilauiued Yan- 
kees Who would be p.ut in there would have 
no need of tiieiii. 1 asked him why he was 
cutting ilo wii all the trees, and suggested that 
they woukl prove a shelter to the prisoners, 
from the lieat of the sun, at least. He made 
this reply, or something similar to it: "That 
is just wiiat I am going to do; 1 am going to 
bund a pen hero that will kill more damned 
Yankees than can be destroyed in the front." 
Those are very nearly his words, or equivalent 
to them. 

iSo much for the execution of the Presi- 
dent's order to locate the prison. 

But 1 am not yet done with the testimony 
of Colonel Chaudler. A subsequent report 
was made by him in the month of August. 
He went back and re examined the horrors 
of that pen, and as the result of his examin- 
ation he made a report, from which I quote 
the last few sentences, (Wirz's trial, p. 22,1:) 
Andebsojjville, August 5, 1861. 

Colonel: » * * 

My iluty requires me respectfully to recom- 
nieiul a change in the oflleer in the coininand 
of the post, lirigadier General J. II. Winder, 
and the substitution in liis place of some 011^=" 
who unites both energy and good judgmeii'' 
■with some feeling of humanity and considera" 



tion for the welfare and comfort (so far as is 
consistent with theirsafe-keepiiigj of tne vast 
number of unfortunates piacoil Uiid(.;r liis con- 
trol; some one Who at least wiil notuiivocaie ile- 
Uberately and in cold biood ilic inoprioiy of 
leaving them in their present coiituiion until 
their number has been sutticicutiy reduced by 
death to make the present arrangement suf- 
tice for their accommodation; wuo will not 
consider it a matter of seil-iaudation and 
boasting that he has never been mside of the 
stockade, a place the liorrors of wiiicu it is 
difUcuit to uescribe, and wnicnisa disgrace 
to civilization, the condition of whicn lie 
miglit, by the exercise of a little energy and 
juagment, even with the liiniietl means at liis 
command, have considerably nuiiroved. 

D. T. Cxl-i.:>ilJLt.ri, 

Assistant Adjutant and inspeaur ueneral. 
Colonel K. H. (JuiLTON, jlAAiAtu/i« AUjiuunc and 

Inspector Uenerul U. iS. A., Riciiniond, Vtr- 

{/I ma. 

Mr. HALE, What is the date of that 
report ? 

Mr. GARFIELD. August 5, 1864. 

Mr. Hale. How long after that was 
Winder retained there in command ? 

Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will come to that in a 
moment. 

Now, what do honorable gentlemen sup- 
pose would naturally be done wilh such a 
report as that ? Remember that Colonel 
Chaudler was a witness before the court 
that tried Wirz and reaffirmed every word 
of this report. If he is living 1 would make 
a pilgrimage to see him and tl.ank him for 

THE HUMANITV AND TENDERNESS 

with which he treated my tmloriunate com- 
rades, bo anxious was he that the great crime 
of Winder should be rebuked thai, lie went to 
Richmond, and in person delivered his leport 
to the Secretary ol \Var, a member, ol :;ouise, 
of the cabinet of Jefferson Davis. If 1 am 
not correct in this 1 believe there is a mem- 
ber of that cabinet now on this Hour who 
can correct me. Of course, being a soldier, 
Colonel Chandler first delivered nis report to 
the adjutant general, and that officei', Gen- 
eral Cooper, on the Ibtli of August, iati4, 
wrote upon the back of the report these 
words : 
Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, 

AlKJIlSt IS, 18l)i. 

Respectfully submitted to the secretary of 
war. Xhe coniliLion of the prison at Ander-' 
sonville is a reproach to us as a luicion. The 
engineer and ordnance departments were 
applied to, and authorizetl tneir issue, and 1 
so telegrapheil General VVmcler. Colonel 
Chandler's recommendanons are coinciiled in, 

liy order Ql' General Cooper. 

K, 11. CHILTON, 

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector Ueneral. 

Not content with that indorsement. Colo- 
nel Chandler went to the office of the secre- 
tary of war himself; but, the secietary be- 
ing absent at tlie moment, the report was 
delivered to the assistant secretary of war, 
J. A. Campbell, who wrote below General 
Cooper's indorsement these words : 

Tliese reports show a condition of things at 
Andersonville which calls very loudly for the 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



^^^'^:^C^^ department, in order that 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 

Assistant Secretary of War. 



Mr. REAGAN. Does not the gentleman 
icnow that the adjutant general could only 
have made such an order by direction of 
the president ? 

Mr. GARFIELD. I do not know what the 
habit was in the confederacy. It is not so in 
this Government. 

Mr. REAGAN. The gentleman will allow 
me to say that all persons familiar with the 
business of that office know that the adju- 
tant general executes direct orders madebv 
the president, but has not himself authority 
to make such orders. 

Mr. GARFIELD. That may have been the 
rule m the Confederate government- but it 
was never the rule here. The Adjutant Gen- 
eral of our Army signs no order except by or- 
der ot the Secretary of War. The Adjutant 
General IS the clerk of the Secretary of 
War and the Secretary of War is in turn 
the clerk of the President. But the gentle- 
man from Texas [Mr Reagan] will soon see 
that he cannot defend Davis by the indorse- 
ment ol General Cooper. The report did not 
stop witli the adjutant general. It was car- 
ried up higher and nearer to Davis. It was 
delivered to Assistant Secretary Campbell 
who wrote the indorsement l have just 
read. The report was lodged with the de- 
partment of war, whose chief was one of the 
confidential advisers of Mr. Davis— a mem- 

'"?',°-'.l''^?^''^^ ^^"^^'^- What was done 
with It/ I he record shows, Mr. Speaker 
that a few days thereafter an order was 
mude in reference to General Winder To 
what effect ? Promoting him ! Adding to 
his power " 

IN THE FIELD OF HIS IXFAMY ! 

He was made commissary -general of all the 
prisons and prisoners throughout the con- 
federacy. TJiat was the answer that came as 
the result of this humane report of Colonel 
Chandler; and that new appointment of 
Windei- came from Mr. Seddons, the Confed- 
erate Secretary of war. 

A MiMiBEE. By order of the President. 
Mr. GARFIELD. Of course all appoii.t- 
mei:ts were made by the President, lor the 
gentleman from Georgia says that they ear- 
ned our Con.stitution with them and hn<r^ed 
3t to their bosoms. But that is not ° all 
The testimony of the Wirz trial shows that 
at one tune the secretary of war himself be- 
came shocked at the brutality of Winder 
and, in a moment of indignation, relieved 
him from command. For authority upon 
this subjecL I refer to the testimony of Cash- 
myer, a detective of Winder's, 'who was 
a witness before the Wirz court. That officer 
testified that when Mr. Seddons, Secretary of 



War, wrote the order relieving Winder, the 
fatter walked over with it to Jefferson Davis 
who immediately wrote on the back of it' 
This IS entirely unnecessary and uncalled 
for. ' Winder appears to have retained the 
confidence and approval of Davis to the end 
and continued on duty until the merciful 
providence of God struck him dead in hi3 
tent in the presence of the witness who c^ave 
this testimony. 

Now, who will deny that in the forum of 
law we do trace the responsibility for these 
atrocities to the man whose name is before 
us to be relieved of all his political disabili- 
ties ? If not, let gentlemen sliow it. Wipe 
out the charge, and I will be the first man 
liere to vote to relieve him of his disabili- 
ties. 

Winder was allowed to go on. What did 
he do ? I will only give results, not details. 
1 will not harrow my own soul by the revi- 
val of those horrible details. There is a 
group of facts in military history well worth 
knowing which will illustrate the point lam 
discussing. The great Napoleon did some 
fighting in his time, as did his great antago- 
nist the Iron Duke. In 18t'9 was fought the 
battle of Talavera, in 1811 the battle of Al- 
ioiT\i" ^^^^^ ^^'^ battle of Salamanca, in 
1813, Vittoria, in 1815 the battles of Li-^ny 
Quartre Bras, Waterloo, Wavre. and 'k^^ 
Orleans, and in 1854 the battles of the Cri- 
mea. The number of men in the English 
army who fell in battle or who were ktlled 
or died of wounds received in these battles 
atnouuted in the aggregate to li>,928. But 
this Major-General Winder, 

WITHIN HIS HOKIBLEAREN'A OF DEATH, 

from April, 1864, to April, 1SG5, tumbled 
into the trenches of Andersonville the dead 
bodies of 12,(344 prisoners— only two hun- 
dred and eighty-four less than all the Encr. 
hshmen who fell in or died of wounds re- 
ceived m the great battles I have named. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I have simply given 
these results. Percentages pale and fade 
away in the presence of such horrible facts. 

THE REBEL PRISONERS AT ELMIRA. 

And the gentleman from Georgia denies 
the charge of atrocities at Andersonville 
and charges us with greater ones. I will 
give his words as they are quoted in 'the 
morning papers: 

Wlien the gentleman from Maine sneaks 
again let him add that the atiocities ot An 

' froci'ue" of'Vr* '''-'''■ V° ^onmare wUh U e 
Fo,t n«? ' °^ Eln"V^- ot Fort l5onglas, or of 
ft \nd^ ''^''"'m','''"' "^l^'l t''e atrocTties, both 
'^L ^*'''°?"^''"*''i"'^^ Elniira. tlie Confederate 
ffbllT^aK/a^iSl^ '^^^'^^"^^ ^-- '^^^ -Son^ 

I stand in the presence of that statement 
with an amazement that I am utterly incap- 
able of expressing. I look upon the serene 
and manly face of the gentleiaan who ut- 



I 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



7 



tered it and I wonder what influence of the 
supernal or nether gods could have touched 
him with maduess lor the moment and led 
him to make that dreadful statement. I 
pause; and I ask the three Democrats on this 
floor who happen to represent the districts 
where are located the three places named, it 
there be one of them who does not know that 
this charge is fearfully and awfully untrue. 
LA pause.] Their silence answers me. 
Ihey are strangers to me, but I know they 
will repel the charge with all the energy of 
their manhood. 

Mr PLATT. I hold in my hand a tele- 
graphic communication from 



patch. I was almost daily at Elmira dur- 
ing the war, and I know that Confederate 
prisoners 



GENERAL B. F. TRACT, 

late commandant of the military post of 
lilmira, and I beg permission to read that 
communication. 

Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will yield for that 
purpose. 

Mr. PLATT. The communication is as 
loUows: 

Brooklyn, JS^ew York, January 12,a876. 
To Hon. T. C. Platt, 

House of Representatives, Washington, 
_,, ^ District oj'.otumbia: 

hum^ntt*;^^^'''^"''^y*'^^"'^«^"ial of cruelty, in- 
nrisoners?.t°''-"'^^''^'-"*^,^'^ the treatment of 
flielvwMM^. "'■^- There was no suttering 
nrfson Fi . r 'V«^"^separable from a military 
prison. J;ir.-;t, there was no dead-line Nn 
prisoner was ever shot for attempt^iu """io es 
beft'ouantT'''T(':; food was ampl.?ana o°the 
nen.ie.M n t^-^ ^ housaads ot dollars were ex- 
Uo 1 to f hM 'l*^ purchase of vegetables, in addi- 
Washfn' tnn^"V^,'"''*''°''- ^'o congressman in 
daii V ro°t,w ^"'"^ better bread than was given 
oftKtmo .^ ,?ml"''''- , ^ '"^ '^"'^f ^^'^s good, and 
tribiit^: tr. ^ '^^'*^ "■"''• quantity as that dis- 
camn TlfhM thi'T soldiers guarding the 

;^,i! ' ■ *- "^^"^ remains were placed in ne-it 

head'bou- 1';>""^'' ''S«^^P^i-^^te gVaves vvi h u 
re«^i^^en t, ^^''';-"°'">'^- ",'^'"°' companv. and 
hn^-i!^i • ' "IV^ t'""^ of ileatli. ami all were 
Fourth VLv'i' 1'^'''^? ^'^■"^tery at Elmil'i! 
roui til, there was no better supplied militirv 

U?1 itl Ihe nt- ^"^'^^1 ''^'^^'■^ t'"--" "'i« 'O-^- 
piiai in the prison amp. Fifth all the n7-i« 

w'oodeirharrael'"'?'''^'^'^ quartired^ln ^n e w 
F°om the time I t'^^^'^' expressly for them, 
bei ^lithA? ^m'^H command, in Septem- 
were ke, I om s't';"!^,^ '" the vicinity of Elmira 

coineaUH.?.^o%-^^*' J^"''l' '-^"'^ ^" thV t'xtreme 
inbi M-,1.. ,^ ot winter the prisoners were all 
were stl, in I'.n *" 'H''^ ^"oldiers guarding them 
the vf-m V n H v^^- ^ ""''^^ criticised for this in 
at the H.y,i , -^'^^'y Journal, I tliink it was, 
f L ^ '"^' "^y '"1 officer of our Army. Sixth 
poac1^1°'^'ancr' ;-" /^'" buildings ^.ertf.ll 
Seventi, t? '^"^I't scrupulously clean 

not owi' i it^ mortality which prevlviled \vas 
Sals or ,?,^'^"''^'"°f '*^' '''^"^ of sufficient sup- 
qu\\e d\S!'t^'^!,^yjy"^°"' -^ t° other aiid 
B. F. TRACY. 
Late Commandani Military Post Union 
Mr. WALKER, of New York. Mr. Speaker, 
as the member from the district in which El- 
mira Depot is located, I take pleasure in in- 
dorsing every word of Colonel Tracy's dis- 



UAD THE SAME CARE AND TREATMENT 

that the Union soldiers had, and I Bev«r 
heard a complaint, [(xreat applause 1 

air. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, the light- 
ning is our witness. From all quarters of 
the Republic denials are pouring in upon 
us. Since I came to the House this morn- 
ing, I have received the following dispatch 
h-om an honored soldier of Ohio, which tells 
Its own story: 

Clevela:,d, Ohio, Jani<a?-y 12, 1876— 10.33a.m. 
lo General Garfield, 

House of Representatives: 
1 5 n^i v«l;^?'""-^' °^ Secretary of \yar I furnished 
io,OM rebel prisoners at Elmira with the same 
^tSl-^ofee, tobacco, coal, wood, c othhfg, 
banacks, medical attendance— as were siven 

buried in Eimira ceineterv. All this can be 
proved by Democrats of that city 

General J. J. ELWELL. 
Mr. HILL. By permission of the gentle- 
man from Ohio, I desire to say that there 
was no purpose on my part by any of my 
remarks on yesterday to charge inhumanity 
upon anybody at Elmira or anywhere else 
1 only read the evidence from official sources 
as 1 understood it. 
Mr. BLAINE. A letter in a newspaper. 
Mr. HILL. Let me get through, if you 
please. Do not be uneasy. Keep quiet, and 
I will not hurt you. [Laughter.] 

Mr. MacDOUGALL. That is what you 
told us in ISGl. ^ 

xMr HILL. I simply say that I was read- 
ing the evidence of cruelties, in the 
language of that letter, "inseparable from 
prison hte." Then I read of the small-pox 
epidemic at Elmira and its character. But 
the remark which the gentleman is now com- 
menting on was not connected with any 
charge of inhumanity upon any person in 
the world. I wish it distinctly understood 
that I meant to charge inliumanity upon no- 
body I was simply speaking of those hor- 
rors that are inseparable from all prison life- 
and I wound tip my statement by sayiuo^ 
that the official reports of Secretary Stanton" 
on the 19th of July, 1S(J6. affer the war was 
over, gave the relative mortality of prisoners 
m l<ederal hands andpriiouers in Confeder- 
ate hands, and that the mortality of Con- 
federate prisoners in northern prisons was 
12 per cent., while the mortality of Federal 
prisoners in Confederate hands was less than ' 
9 per cent. Now I simply said that jud-in<r 
by that test there was more atrocity (if you 
please to call it so)— I meant, of course, mor- 
tality— in the prisons of the North than in 
those of the South. Let the gentleman take 
the beuefit of that statement. I simply re- 
ferred to the report of Secretary Stanton. 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



Mr. BAKER, of Indiana. Does the gentle- 
man mean to charge that the amount of mor- 
tality in Norihern prisons was owing to any 
cruelty or neglect of the Federal officers ? 

Mr. HILL. I do not undertake to say to 
what special cause the mortality on either 
side was attributable. I say it was attribu- 
table to those horrors inseparable from prison 
life everywhere; and I simply entered my 
protest against gentlemen seeking to stir 
up those old past horrors on either side to 
keep alive a strife that ought to be buried. 
That is all. [Applause.] 

Mr. GARFIELD. I am glad to hear what 
the gentleman says, and to give it more force 
by contrast I quote again the words he used 
as reported in the newspapers this morning : 

When the gentleman from Maine addresses 
the House again lot him add to it thattlie atro- 
cities of Andersoiiville do not begin to com- 
pare with the atrocities of Elmirji, of Fort 
Douglas, or of Fort Delaware ; and of all the 
atrocities, both at Andersonville and Elmira, 
the Confederate government stands acquitted 
from all responsibility and blame. 

I refer to it to show why I could not 

Mr. HILL. I have no doubt the gentle- 
man's motive is good ; but he will permit 
me to remind him that what he has just read 
was said by me after reading Secretary 
Stanton's report; and of course, while I men- 
tioned prison places at the North I did not 
mean to charge inhumanity upon any one as 
a class. 

Mr. GARFIELD. But let me say another 
word to close Ihis branch of the subject. 
The only authority introduced to prove the 
pretended atrocity at Elmira was an anouj'- 
mous letter printed in the New York Woi-lcl. 
The Roman soldiers who watched at the sep- 
ulchre of the Saviour of mankind attempted 
to disprove his resurrection by testifying to 
what happened while they were asleep. Bad 
as this testimony was, it was not anonymous ; 
but, in this case the testimony was 
that of a shadow — an initial — nobody. 
Stat nomiiiis umlira. What the substance 
was we know not. But even as to this 

ANONYMOUS ANUTHOKITY, 

it would have been well for, the cause of 
justice if the gentleman had been kind enough 
toquote it all. I read, I believe, from tbe very 
book from which the gentleman quoted — The 
Life of Davis — a sentence omitted by him, but 
which I hope be will have printed in his 
speech. It is this : 

The facts demonstrate that in as healthy a 
location as there is in New York, with every 
remedial appliance in abundance, with no 
epidemic, &c. 

So that even this anonymous witness tes- 
tifies that we planted our Elmira prison in as 
healthy a place as there was in the State of 
isew York. It ought to be added that the 
small-pox broke out in that prison very soon 
after the date of this letter; and the mortal- ' 



ity that followed was very much greater than 
in any other prison in the North. 

How we have kept alive our vindictiveness 
will be seen by the fact that Congress, at its 
last session or the session before last, passed 
a law making the rebel cemetery ai Elmira 
a part of the national-cemetery system ; and 
to-day, this malignant Administration, this 
ferocious Constitution-hating and South-hat- 
ing Administration is paying an officer for 
tenderly caring for the inclosure that holds 
the remains of these outraged soldiers ! 

Mr. MacDOUGALL. And a Union soldier, 
Captain Fitch, is building at his own ex- 
pense a monument at Elmira to the Confede- 
rate dead. 

Mr, GARFIELD. I did not know that. 
At another place, Finn's Point, in Virginia, 
we have within the past few months em- 
braced another cemetery of rebel soldiers 
under the law and protection of our national 
cemetery system. All this out of the depths 
of our wrath and hatred for our Southern 
brethren ! • 

Mr. HILL. Will the gentleman allow me 
to say a word on that point ? 

Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly. 

Mr. HILL. In response to what the gen- 
tleman has said, I desire to state as a fact 
what I personally know, that on the last oc- 
casion of decorating soldiers' graves in the 
South, our people, uniting with Northern 
soldiers there, decorated in harmonious ac- 
cord the graves of the fallen Federals and 
the graves of the fallen Confederates. It is 
because of this glorious feeling that is being 
awakened in the country that I protest 
against the revival of these horrors about 
any prison. 

Mr. GARFIELD. So do I. Who brought 
it here? [Cries from the Democratic side 
of the House, Blaine! Blaine!] We will 
see as to that. 1 wish this same fraternal 
feeling could come out of the graveyard and 
display itself toward the thirty or forty 
maimed Union soldiers who were on duty 
around this Capitol, but who have been dis- 
placed by an equal number of 

SOLDIERS ON THE OTHEK SIDE. 

[Applause.] 

There was another point which the gentle- 
man made which I am frank to say I am not 
now able to answer. 

Mr. REAGAN. Mr. Speaker, I wish to 
call attention (with the permission of the gen- 
tleman from Ohio) to the exact state of facts 
in reference to the allegation just made by 
him. This is not the first time tlie statement 
has been made that there liave been thirty or 
forty crippled Federal soldiers removed from 
office under this House and th^-ir places filled 
by Confederate soldiers. I was shown yes- 
terday morn ng by the Doorkeeper of the 
House (and the information is as accessible 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



to the gentleman from Ohio and all others as 
to myself) a roll showing there were eighteen 
Federal soldiers appointed by the Doorkeep- 
er of the House during the last Congress, 
while twenty-four Federal soldiers have 
been appointed by the Doorkeeper of the 
present Congress; while at the same time 
the aggregate number of appointments al- 
lowed to the Doorkeeper of the House of the 
last Congress was very much larger than 
that allowed to the Doorkeeper of the present 
Congress. Besides that, more than three- 
fourths of those appointed by the present 
Doorkeeper have taken what is popularly 
denominated as the iron-clad oath. 

Mr. GARFIELD. I should be glad to know 
that the gentleman from Texas is correct. 

Mr. SOUTHARD. The gentleman from 
Texas has referred to a list which I have here 
before me. 

Mr. GARFIELD. My time is fast running 
out, and I do not want it all taken up by 
these explanations; but I will hear my col- 
league. 

The SPEAKER. Does the gentleman from 
Ohio yield? 

Mr. GARFIELD. I yield to my colleague. 

Mr. RANDALL. Your time will be ex- 
tended. 

Mr. SOUTHARD. The statement which 
I have before me, and to which the gentle- 
man from Texas referred, is that of the one 
hundred and rifty-three appointments made 
by the Doorkeeper in the last House of Rep- 
resentatives, there were eighteen Union sol- 
diers; while, out of the eighty-five appoint- 
ments allowed to the Doorkeeper of the 
present House, twenty-six Union soldiers 
have been appointed. [Applause.] 

The SPEAKER. These demonstrations are 
entirely out of order. 

Mr. .TONES, of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, 
I rise to a point of order. 

The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state 
it. 

Mr. JONES, of Kentucky. My point is 
this: I do not know whether it is a point of 
order or not, but I do request that the 
Speaker will in the most determined man- 
ner suppress any applause in this House. I 
regret this debate, and especially these de- 
tails; but this applause is unbecoming the 
gravity o*' the question, ho'.rever unfortu- 
nately it may have come up here; and I do 
request that on this side of the House there 
shall be no applause of any member who 
speaks for tlie South, or any demonstration 
against any one speaking on that side of the 
House. I hope courtesy and decorum will 
be observed. [Cries of "GoodI" "Good!"] 
It is unbecoming the House, and unbecom- 
ing the country, and I hope it will be 
stopped. 



The SPEAKER. The suggestion of the 
gentleman from Kentucky is well made. 
These things are not in order, and the Chair 
earnestly requests the House will set an 
example to those outside of the bar and in 
the galleries by stopping all such demonstra- 
tions. And the Chair takes occasion to say 
to the galleries that if these things are con- 
tinued it will be his duty to have them 
cleared. 

Mr. GARFIELD. I regret as much as any 
one the discussion of this question. I did 
not intend to refer to it at all. I hope what 
my colleague has presented as a statistical 
table will turn out to be correct. I shall be 
glad if it does. I know he thinks it is cor- 
rect. However, there has been put into my 
hand a statement about a single office of the 
House in which the names of the old and 
new rolls are given. I speak of the post- 
office of the House, in which it is claimed 
that while nine Union soldiers were on the 
rolls during the last year, 

NINE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS 

have replaced them on the roll of this 
year; and that of the thirteen employes 
there, but two took the oath that they had 
not borne arms against the Government. 
If the statement be correct which I have 
had put into my hands, it would seem to 
throw some shadow of doubt on what we 
have just heard. But let both statements 
go in together. 

This is the list handed to me: 

POST-OFFICE OF THE HOUSE. 

The old force.— Norman Crane, Vermont; A. 
M. Legg, New York, two years in Union Army; 
F. A. Warden, Massachusetts, four yeurs in 
Lnion Army and permaneiitiy cUsaOied at 
Winchester; J. H. Faine, Ohio, was in Union 
Army;0. M. Tlionias, iowa;K. P. liisliop, xMicU- 
iguu, lost an arm in the Union Army; K. S. 
McMichael, Wisconsin, nearly lost his sight in 
the Union Army; D. B. Bradley, Wisconsin, 
three years in Union Army; J. H. Lytle, New 
Yorlt; W. B. Sessions, New York; J. D. Silvern, 
Pennsylvania; D. F. Bishop, Pennsylvania; W. 
Tudge, District of ColumDia; Cripci Palmoni, 
District of Columbia. 

Tlie new force.— Ueorge W. Rock, Virginia, 
in Confederate army; Henry Cook, V irginia, in 
Confederate army; Kichard Allen, Virginia; .S. 
W. Kennedy, Virginia, in Confederate aruiy; 
A. W. C. Nowlin, Virginia, in Confederatearmy; 
Edward C. Sloss, Virginia; W. H. liobinson 
Virginia, in Conlederdte army; J. K. l^isher' 
Virginia, in Confederate army; P. S. Goodsii' 
"W. B. Lowery, Virginia, in Confederate arniyi 
Josepli M. Taylor, Edwin Esce, New VorKi 
Thomas Kirby, Connecticut, in Union Army.i 

Mr. Speaker, I was about to refer to an- 
other point made by the gentleman from 
Georgia in his statement of the number of 
prisoners taken by us and taken by them 
and the relative number of deaths. I have 
this morning received from the Surgeon 
General references to all the pages of official 
reports on that subject, but I have not been 
able, in the hurried moments of the session 
since I arrived here, to examine the figures. 



10 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Bukchard] 
has made up a part of the statement which 
I am now able to present. That statement 
shows that during the war 

WE TOOK 476,169 PRISONERS, 

while on the other side they took 188,145 
prisoners from us. 

This is a statement to which the Surgeon 
General referred me in a note received since 
I took my seat in the House this mornino- 
and is in a printed report on the treatment 
of prisoners of war hy the rebel authorities, 
third session Fortieth Congress, page 228,' 
which gentlemen can examine at their leis- 
ure. 

It ought to be added in this connection 
that the conscription laws of the Confederate 
congress forced all able-bodied citizens be- 
tween the ages of seventeen and filty into 
the service, while our laws limited the con- 
scription to the usual military ages. This 
of course, put into their army a large num- 
ber of immature boys and broken-down old 
men, among whom the mortality would nat- 
urally be greater than in an army made up 
of men of the ordinary ages. 

I tui n now to another point. The gentle- 
man makes another answer concerning these 
atrocities. 

The SPEAKER. The gentleman's hour 
has expired. 

Mr. HILL. I hope the gentleman from 
Ohio will be permitted to go on. 

There being no objection, Mr. Garfield's 
time was extended indefinitely. 

Mr. GARFIELD. I am very grateful for 
this courtesy and will not abuse it. 

The gentleman from Georgia makes an- 
other answer, that whatever was suffered bv 
the prisoners for at least a considerable por- 
tion of the time was in consequence of our 

REFUSAL TO MAKE AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS 

because we would not give them their fresh 
men in oiir prisons, and take our shadows 
and skeletons that came back from theirs. 

This is a part, and an important part, of a 
great history, which mu .t not be omitted in 
this debate; and I will very brietiy refer toils 
leading points. There was much trouble abjut 
the exchange of prisoners between the two 
belligerents; first, because for a long time 
we did not acknowledge the Confederates as 
belligerents. We hoped under the ninety 
days theory of Mr. Seward to get throucrh 
without their recognition, but that hope 
failed. Our enemies were as gallant a peo- 
ple as ever drew the sword, and the fulfill- 
ment of that hope was delayed for months 
and lor years. But finally an arrangement 
was made under which it was possible to 
make a cartel for the exchange of prisoners- 
and on the 22d of July, 1862, a cartel was 
agreed upon between the belligerents, which 



provided that within ten days after a pris- 
oner was taken he should be paroled and 
sent home; and whenever it was announced 
by either side that a certain number was re- 
heved from the parole a corresponding num- 
ber should be released from ihe other side 
and m that way the exchange was effected'. 
Ihere were two points of delivery of pris- 
oners. One was at Vicksburg. Another 
was at a point near Dutch Gap, in Virf^inla 
Andthe exchange went on for some" time 
until a series of events occurred which in- 
terrupted it. To those events I desire to 
call attention for a momenf. The first in or- 
der of time was a proposition which was 
read before the House yesterday, and which 
I incorporate here in my remarks, not for 
the sake of making any personal point, but 
to preserve the continuity of the history. 

hill's black FLAG RESOLUTION. 

In October, 1862, a resolution was intro- 
duced into the Confederate Senate bv Sen- 
ator Hill, of Georgia — 

Tliat every person pretending to be a sol- 
dier or oftieer of the l/iiitcrt States who shall 
be captured on the soil of the Con edemte 
states after the first of January, 18°^ shaU bl 
presumed to hav,i_entered the terrUory of 
the Confederate States with intent to excite 
insurrection and to abet murder, and that un! 

trary before tlie military court before vvhlcl, 
his trial shall De had he ihail suffer death 



Thatwas the first step in the complication 
in regard to the exchange of prisoners of 
war. riiat resolution appears to have borne 
early fruits. 

On the22dday of December, 1862, Jeffer- 
son Davis, the man for whom amnesty is now 
being asked, issued a proclamation', a copy 
of which I liold in my hand. I read two 
paragraphs: 

First. That all commissioned officers in thp 

command of said Benjamin F. But?er be do! 

dw'^'V'"^ entitled to be considered as sol 

vnuuj'"'^''^!''^ ^" honorable warfare, but as 

pb beis and criminals deserving de:ith- ami 

that they, and each of them be, whenever 

captured, reserved for execution. ''^"*^"®^*-' 

Mr. HILL. A reason is stated for that. 

Mr. GARFIELD. The reason is in the 

preamble. I am not discussing the reasons 

tor this extraordinary proclamation, but its 

effects upon the exchange of prisoners. 

Third. That all negro slaves captured In 
arms be at once delivered over to the execu 
tive authorities of the respective States to" 
which they belong, to be dealt with according 
to the laws of saitl States i-v iumg 

Fourth. That the like orders be executed in 
all eases with respect to all commissioned 
officers of the United States when tV^und serv- 
ing in company with said slaves in in^nrrec 
tion against the authorities of the different 
States of this Confederacy. "imieiit 

Two great questions were thus raised: first 
that a certain class of oflicers, merely be- 
cause they served under General Butler 
should be declared not entitled to the rights 
of prisoners of war, but should be put to 



SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



11 



death when taken. These men were serv- 
ing, not Benjamin F. Butler, but the Union. 
They did not choose him as their general. 
They were assigned to him ; and by this 
proclamation that assignment 

COXSIGNED THEM TO DEATH 

at the hands of their captors. But the 
second question 'was still more important. 
It was an order that all men who had 
been slaves and had enlisted under the 
flag of the Union should be denied all the 
rights of soldiers, and when captured should 
be dealt with as runaway slaves under the 
laws of the States where they formerly be- 
longed, and that commissioned officers who 
commanded them were to be denied the 
rights and privileges of prisoners of war. 
The decision of the Union people every- 
where was that, great as was the suflferincr 
of our poor soldiers at Andersonville and 
elsewhere, we would never make an ex- 
change of prisoners until the manhood and 
the rights of our colored soldiers were ac- 
knowledged by the belligerent power. And 
for long weary months we stood upon that 
issue, and most of the suffering occurred 
while we waited for that act of justice to be 
done on the other side. 

To enforce this proclamation of Mr. Davis 
a law was passed on the 1st of May, 1863, by 
the Confederate congress, reported, doubt- 
less, from the judiciary committee by the 
gentleman who spoke yesterday, and in that 
law the principles of the proclamation I have 
just read were embodied and expanded. 
Section 4 of the law reads as follows: 

Sec. 4. That every white person, being- a 
comnussionea officer or acting as such, who- 
uuniig the present war, sl)all command 
negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Con 
loUerate States, or who sliall arm, train orl 
giinize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for 
military service against the Confederate 
States or who shall voluntarilv aid negroes 
or mulattoes in any military enterprise, at- 
tack, or conliict in such service, sliall be 
deemed as inciting servile insurrection, and 
sliall, If captured, De put to death or be other- 
wise punished, at the discretion of the court. 
bEC. o. Every person, being a commissioned 
Officer or acting as such in the service of the 
enemy, who shall during the present war ex- 
cite, attenipt to excite, or cause to be excited 
a servile insurrection, or who shall incite or 
cause to be incited a slave to rebel, shall if 
captured, be put to death or be otherwise 
punished, at the discretion of the court 

Sec. 7. All negroes and mulattoes who shall 
be engaged m war or be taken in arms against 
the Couiederate States, or shall give aid or 
comfort to the enemies of the Confederate 
.'^*Jl®'i*'^'^l'' ""^'2" captured in the Confeder- 
ate States, be delivered to the authorities of 
the btate or States in which they shall be cau- 
tured, to be dealt with according to the pres- 
ent or future laws of such State or States 
Approved May ], 1S63 



Now, Mr. Speiker, I am hereto say that 
this position taken by the head of the Con- 
federacy, indorsed by his congress and car- 
ried into execution by his officers, was the 



great primal trouble in all this business of 
the exchange of prisoners. There were 
minor troubles, such as claims by both sides 
that paroles had been violated.' I think 
General Halleck reported that a whole divi- 
sion of four brigades, Stevenson's division, 
which had not been properly exchanged,' 
fought us at Lookout Mountain; but that 
may have been a mistake. It was one of 
the points in controversy. But the central 
question was that of the Government of the 
United States having committed itself to the 
doctrine that 

THE NEGKO WAS A MAN AND NOT A CHATTEL 

and that being a man he had a right to 
help us in fighting for the Union, and be- 
ing a soldier we would perish rather than 
that he should not be treated as a soldier. 

To show that I am not speaking at ran- 
dom I will read from a report which I hold 
in my hand, a report of the Secretary of 
War en the difficulty of the exchange of pris- 
oners. This paper is dated August 24, liiU4. 
I think it is a misprint for 1863, from what 
surrounds it; but no matter as to that. It 
was in August General Meredith reported: 
. To my demand "that all officers command- 
ing negro troops, and negro troops themselves, 
should be treated as other prisoners 'of war 
and be exchanged as such," mr. Ould declined 
acceding remarking that they (the rebels) 
vvould "die in the last ditch" before giving up 
the right to send slaves back to siliverv as 
property recaptured. ^ 

******* 
I am, general, very resioectfuUy, vour obedi- 
ent servant, " 

S. A. MEREDITH, 

Brigadier- General and Commissioner for Ex- 
change. ■' 

Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, Comviissioner 
J or Exchange 0/ Prisoners, Washington. £>. C. 

Thus it appears that in the negotiation as 
late as.^he month of August, 1863, the re- 
fusal of the rebel authorities to treat the 
negro as a man and a soldier, prevented the 
exchange of prisoners. 

One other point in that connection and I 
will leave this subject. I have here a let- 
ter, dated March 17, 1863, written by Robert 
Ould and addressed to that man of "bad 
eminence," General Winder, in which Mr. 
Ould, speaking of his arrangement for the 
exchange of prisoners, says: 



The arrangements that I have made ivork 
largely in our favor. We get rid of a set of 
miserable wretches and receive some of the best 
material lever saw. 

Now in that single line, in a communica- 
tion between two men, not par nobiie fratrum 
but par titrpe diaholorum, is proof tliat the 
object of this outrageous treatment at An- 
dersonville was to make our men so that 
their exchange would be valueless to us, and 
it throws light upon the charge about our 
treatment of prisoners held in the North. 



12 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



Now, Mr. Speaker, I return from all this 
to the jlirect discussion bearing immediately 
upon Jetferson Davis. It seems to me iueou- 
trovertible that tlie records I have adduced 
lay at liis door tlie charge of being himself 
tlie author, tlie conscious author, through 
his own appointed instrument, of tlie terrible 
work at Andersonviile, for which the Ameri- 
can people still hold him unfit to be ad- 
mitted amon^ the legislators of tliis nation. 

Before 1 leave that subject let me say 
another word or another point. I see around 
me liere a lacge number of gentlemen who 
did not hesitate to take the oath of allegi- 
ance to the Government of the United States, 
wlio did not hesitate to ask to be relieved 
of their political disabilities, and I ask if any 
one of tliem, in the years they have served 
here with us, has been ever taunted with 
the fact that he has been thus relieved of 
disabilities at his own request ? Can any 
one of iliem recall a 'discourteous remark 
that has ever been made here in debate be- 
cause he has asked and accepted the am- 
nesty of the Government ? Do you want us 
to say that the remaining seven hundred and 
fifty need not ask what you did ? Do the 
honorable gentlemen who are here to-day 
want easier terms on which the others may 
come in than the terms on which they them- 
selves came back ? 

Mr. HILL. I desire to ask a question for 
information, fori want the facts, and my re- 
collection differs from that of the gentle- 
man from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield.] The act of 
1872, granting a partial amnesty to quite a 
large number, does not, as I understand it, 
make any sucli requisition as is contained 
in the amendment of the gentleman from 
Md,ine, [Mr. Elaine.] 

Mr. GARFlliLD. The gentlema>i.is right. 

Mr. HILL. It was au unconditional am- 
nesty like that contained in the bill of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Ran- 
dall.] It required no oath or anything of 
the sort. 

Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not. 

Mr. H ILL. I am very sure that it was under 
that act that I was relieved. And I never 
applied for any amnesty at all, but I would 
not have felt it 

any loss of pride had I DONE SO. 

Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not. I remem- 
ber very well that we relieved a large num- 
ber of soldiers in one act. But we did not 
relieve those who, at the time the rebellion 
broke out, held offices and commissions un- 
der the Government, which they had sworn 
before God they would protect and defend, 
and afterward went into the rebellion. Those 
are the people that we have required to ask 
for amnesty. 

Mr. HILL. Allow me to call the attention 
of the gentlenian to a correction of his state- 



ment. The act of Congress of 1872 relieved 
all persons, as I understand it, from disabil- 
ities who had been members of any State 
Legislature, or who had been an executive or 
judicial officer of any State, and relieved all 
in civil or military service, or who had even 
been in the Congress of the United States, ex- 
cepting the Thirty-fifth or Thirty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

Mr. GARFIELD. The Thirty-sixth and 
Thirty-seventh Congresses. 

Mr. HILL. Well, one or the other. It 
relieved all those who were not in Congress 
at the time of secession, all members ot Stale 
Legislatures, all civil and military officers, 
except the lew remaining, some seven hun- 
dred and fifty. You granted them relief 
witliout any condition whatever. 

Mr. GARFIELD. The gentleman will ob- 
serve that those to whom he refers did not, 
at the time the war broke out, hold commis- 
sions as United States officers. 

Mr. HILL. Yes. 

Mr. GARFIELD. We excepted from am- 
nesty all those who held in their hands a 
commission from the Federal Government, 
and who had sworn to bj true to their com- 
mission ; and we did this because they had 
added to rebellion — I must use words — 

THK CRIME OF PERJURY 

in the eyes of the law. 

Mr. TUCKER. Will the gentleman allow 
me to interrupt him ? 

Mr. GARFIELU. Certaiuly. 

Mr. TUCKER. Do I understand the gen- 
tleman from Oliio, speaking iiere to-day of 
kindness to gentlemen on this side of the 
House, tosay that any man who held a commis- 
sion under the United States at the time the 
war broke out, and who went into secession, 
was guilty of perjury '! 

Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will repeat precisely 
the measured words I used. I said '"the 
crime of perjury in tlie eyes of the law." In 
view of the fact of tiaming war, 1 do not say 
those men should be regarded as ordinary 
perjurers ; I never said tliat. But what will 
the gentleman call it ? By what other name 
does the law know it? I did not make tiie 
dictionary, nor did I make the law. The gen- 
tleman certainly knows me well enougli to 
know that lam incapable of making a refer- 
ence to any personal matter in this discus- 
sion. He muxt see that I am using the word 
as it is used in the law. 

Mr. TUCKER. Mr. Speaker 

The SPEAKER pjo tempore, (Mr. Springer 
in the chair.) Does the gentleman from Oliio 
yield further to the gentleman from Virgin- 
ia, [Mr. Tucker .''] 

Mr. GARFiELD. Certainly. 

Mr. TUCKER. I do not ask to interrupt 
the gentleman that i may excuse myself, but 
to excuse some of the noblest men that I 



SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



13 



have ever known, and of whom the gentle 
man might be proud to claim to be a peer. 

Mr. '^"^ARFIELD. There were some pas- 
sages in the speech of yesterday which make 
me less reluctant 

TO SPEAK OP BREAKING OATHS. 

He said : 

We chai'ge all our wrongs to tliat "higher 
law"' fanaticism wliieli nevex kept a pledge or 
oheyecl a law. We sought to leave the associa- 
tion of those who would not keep fidelity to cov- 
enant. We sought to go hy ourselves ; hut, so 
far from having lost our fidelity to the Consti- 
tution, we hugged it to our hosoms and car- 
ried it with us. * * * But you gentlemen 
who persecuted us hy your infidelities until 
you drove us out of tlie Union, you who then 
claimed to be the only friends of the Union, 
which you had before denounced as a "league 
with hell and a covenant with deatli," you who 
follow up the war when the soldiers who 
fought it have made peace and gone to their 
homes, to you we have no concessions to 
make. Martyrs owe no apology to tyrants. 

There is a certain sublimity of assumption 
in this which challenges admiration. Wliy 
the very men of whom we are talking, 
who broke their oaths of office to the nation 
— when we are speaking of relieving them we 
are told that they went out because we broke 
the Constitution and would not be bound by 
oaths. Did we break the Constitution ? Did 
we drive them out ? I invoke the testimony 
of Alexander H. Stephens, now a member of 
this House, who, standing up in the secession 
convention of Georgia, declared that there 
was no just ground for Georgia's going out ; 
declared that the election of a President 
according to the Constitution was no justifi- 
able ground for secession, and declared that 
if ttnder the circumstances the South should 
go o\it she would herself be committing a 
gigantic wrong and would call down upon 
herself the thunders and horrors of civil war. 

Thus spoke Alexander H. Stephens in 
18G0. Over against anything that may be 
said to the contrary I place his testimony 
that we did not force the South out ; that 
they went out against all the protests and 
the prayers and the humiliation that a great 
and proud nation could make without abso- 
lute disgrace. 

Mr. DAVIS. Will the gentleman from 
Ohio yield to me a moment? 

Mr." GARFIELD. Certainly, 

Mr. DAVIS. The gentleman has used a 
term that touches the honor of more toen 
than one in this House and in the South. I 
desire, th<5refore, to ask him this question: 
Whether the war did not result from a dif- 
ference of views between gentlemen of the 
North and gentlemen of the South with re- 
gard to what was the true construction of 
the Constitution? That being so, I desire 
to ask him further whether the oath of fidel- 
ity to the Constitution was best observed by 
those people of the section which he repre- 
sents, those of his own party, who declared 



that there was a law higher than the Consti- 
tution and declined to obey that instrument, 
or by those who observed faithfully their 
constitutional* obligations, and who, when 
raids were made upon them, merely defended 
themselves, as they understand it, 

FROM UNCONSTITUTIONAL AGGRESSION ? 

I wish to say further for myself and for 
thoie who are here with me that, the Con- 
stitution having been amended — the "higher 
law" party having incorporated in that in- 
strument the abolition of slav- ry and cer- 
tain other features which we have now sworn 
to support along with the rest of the instru- 
ment — if in the future we fail to observe 
that oath before high Heaven, then we may 
be declared perjured; then we may be de- 
clared rebels; then we may be declared 
traitors. 

Mr. GARFIELD. If the gentleman has 
understood me he cannot fail to see that I 
have not used the word in any offensive 
sense, but in its plain and ordinary accepta- 
tion, as used in the law. We held that the 
United States was a nation, bound together 
by a bond of perpetual union; a union which 
no State or any combination of State*, which 
no man or any combination of men, had the 
right, under the Constitution, to break. 
The attempt of the .South to overthrow the 
Union was crime against the Government-the 
crime of rebellion. It can be described by no 
other name. It is so known to the laws of na- 
tions. It is so described in the decisions of 
the Supreme Court. 

The gentleman from North Carolina calls 

THE WAR ON ONE SIDE A RAID. 

I will never consent to call our war for the 
Union "a raid," least of all a raid upon the 
right? of any human being. I admit that there 
wa-* a political theory of State rights — a theory 
held, I have no doubt, by gentlemen like 
the gentleman of Virginia [Mr. Tucker] who 
spoke a moment ago — believed in as sin- 
cerely as I believe the opposite — which led 
them to think it was their duty to go when 
their State went. I admit that that greatly 
mitigates all that the law speaks of as a vio- 
lation of an oath. But I will never admit 
(for history gives the lie to the statement in 
every line) that the men of the Union were 
making a "raid" upon the rights of the 
South. 

Read the Republican platform of 1856 and 
of 1860. What did we contend for in those 
years? Simply that slavery should not be 
extended into any Territory already free. 
That was all. We forswore any right or 
purpose on our part in time of peace to touch 
slavery in any State. We only claimed that 
in the Territories, the common heritage of 
all the Union, slavery should never travel 
another inch; and, thank God, it no loiiirer 
pollutes our soil or disgraces our civilization. 



14 



SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



Now that slavery, 

THE GUILTY CAUSE OF THE REBELI^ON. 

is no more, and that, so far as I know- 
nobody wants it restored — I do not believe 
these gentlemen from the South desire its 

restoration 

Mr. HILL. We would not have it. 
Mr. GARFIELD. They would not have 
it. the gentleman from Georgia says. Then 
let us thank God that in the fierce flames of 
war the institution of slavery has been con- 
sumed; and out of its ashes let lis hope a 
better .than the fabled Phcenix of old will 
arise — a love of the Union high and deep, 
"as broad and general as the casing air," 
enveloping us all, and that it shall be 
counted no shame for any man who is not 
btill under political disabilities to say with 
uplifted hand, "I will be true to it and take 
the proffered amnesty of the nation." But 
let us not tender it to be spurned. If it is 
worth having, it is worth asking for. 

And now, Mr. Speaker, I close as I began. 
Foward those men who gallantly fought us 
Dn the field I cherish the kindest feeling. I 
'eel a sincere reverence for the soldierly 
qualities they displayed on many a well- 
'ought battle-field. I hope the day will 
;ome when their swords and 'ours will be 
jrossed over many a doorway of our chil- 
Iren, who will remember the glory of their 
mcestors with pride. The high qualities 
iisplayed in that conflict now belong to the 
vhole nation. Let them be consecrated to 
he Union and its future peace and glory. 

sl)all hail that consecration as a pledge and 
ymbol of our perpetuity. 

But there was a class of men referred to 
n tlie speech of the gentleman yesterday 
or whom I have never yet gained the Chris- 
ian grace necessary to say the same thing. 
L'he gentleman said that amid the thunder 
if battle, through its dun smoke, and 
,bove its roar they heard a voice from this 
ide saying, "Brothers, come." I do not 



know whether he meant the same thing, bu* 
I heard that voice behind us. I heard that 
voice, and I recollect that I sent one of those 
who uttered it through our lines — a voice 
owned by Vallandigham. [Laughter.] Gen- 
eral Scott said, in the early days of the war, 
"When this war is over, it will require all 
the physical and moral power of the Gov- 
ernment 

TO RESTRAIN THE KAGE AND FUBY OF THE NON- 
COMBATANTS." 

[Laughter.] It was that non-combatant 
voice behind us that cried "halloo?" to 
the other side; that always gave cheer 
and encouragement to the enemy in our 
hour of darkness. I have never forgot- 
ten and Lave not yet forgiven those Dem- 
ocrats of the North whose hearts were not 
warmed by the grand inspirations of the 
Union, but who stood back finding fault, 
always crying disaster, rejoicing at our de- 
feat, never glorying in our victory. If these 
are the voices the gentleman heard, I am 
sorry he is now united with those who ut- 
tered them. 

But to those most noble meu. Democrats and 
Republicans, who together fought for the 
Union, I commend all the lessons of charity 
that the wisest and most beneficent men have 
taught. 

I join you all 

IN EVERY ASPIRATION 

that you may express to stay in this Union, to 
heal its wounds, to increase its glory, and to 
forget the evils and bitternessess of the past; 
but do not, for the sake of the three hun- 
dred thousand heroic men who, maimed 
and bruised, drag out their weary lives, 
many of them carrying in their hearts hor- 
rible memories of what they suffered in 
the prison-pen — do not ask us to vote to put 
back into power that man who was the cause 
of their suffering — that man still unaneled, 
unshrived, uuforgiveu, undefended. [Great 
applause.] 



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